resizing XP partition to give more space for Ubuntu 8.04
 

I am a sort of newbie. My Ubuntu partition is about 14gb and XP NTFS is 61gb. I want to resize Ubuntu to about 40gb. [not ready to go 100% Linux].
I tried resizing the XP partition with Norton PM. I get a couple of error messages and resizing does not occur.

I have a recent Gparted Live CD, but it doesn't seem to have a GUI, only the command line.

I have read some other posts but they don't seem to address this issue.

I want to partition so I don't lose the mbr or grub which apparently is loaded in the Linux partition. Apparently I can install my XP installation CD and fixmbr. That will eliminate the Linux boot. So how do I resize safely?

How do I proceed?

Thanks

There are several live cd distros out there that have gparted and qtparted with a GUI interface. Mepis 6.5 for one and it also has cfdisk and fdisk that can be run from a command line. If you are planning on using linux distros find a live cd, it can become the best tool in your arsenal.

What might those error messages be when you tried Partition Magic? Could be useful to post. Post the results of command: fdisk -l - so that we know your partition structure (need to do as root, sudo). This should help someone to be able to tell you how and/or if you can safely resize. If you use your xp rescue cd it will overwrite grub and install ntldr and you will have to go through an interesting process to boot linux from xp.

Assuming your XP is bootable, you might make things easier by booting XP and using its built-in tools to defragment its partition (maybe also reduce the size of its page file before defragmenting).

Shrinking an NTFS partition is a lot easier when that partition has been defragmented.

Fixed
 

I gave up on my Norton PM. I think the error was 510 there was something else about batching.

I found a website for Parted Magic Live CD and it took care of the problem. Now I have resized the XP partition and expanded the Linux partition.

The website is:
http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php

Parted Magic seems equal to or better than Norton PM.

Another very useful utility that got me out of a pickle is
Super Grub Disk located at:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

The Live CD enables you to restore your linux grub. It enabled me to either boot from my windows or linux partitions.



Thanks for all the help. Now I will work on trying to get my Lexmark 3470 to work on Ubuntu! Printer problem solved!! I swapped my son's HP for my Lexmark. HP works great!